Generation over passivity

Generate the content yourself — complete a sentence, solve a problem, predict the next step — rather than reading it.

Why it works

The generation effect is well-established: items that learners generate themselves are remembered better than items they read, even when the generated items contain errors that are immediately corrected. Generation requires active retrieval of associated knowledge, forces the creation of novel associations, and requires deeper processing than recognition. The additional processing difficulty — the desirable difficulty — is what produces the retention benefit.

How to do it

1. Before reading a definition, write your best guess at what the term means.
2. Before reading a solution, attempt the problem — even partially.
3. Before reading a chapter conclusion, predict the main point.
4. Compare your generation to the correct answer; the gap is the learning, regardless of how imperfect your generation was.

Evidence

The generation effect was established by Slamecka and Graf (1978) and has been replicated extensively. Generated items are recalled substantially better than read items across diverse materials and learner populations. A meta-analytic review by Bertsch and colleagues (2007) confirmed the effect is robust across studies, establishing generation as a reliable rather than incidental advantage. (rct)

Generation with errors can sometimes produce interference if incorrect information is strongly committed to and not corrected immediately; the generation should always be followed by accurate feedback.

Sources

• Slamecka & Graf (1978), "The generation effect: Delineation of a phenomenon," Journal of Experimental Psychology
• Slamecka, N. J., & Graf, P. (1978). The generation effect: Delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 4(6), 592–604.
• Bertsch, S., Pesta, B. J., Wiscott, R., & McDaniel, M. A. (2007). The generation effect: A meta-analytic review. Memory & Cognition, 35(2), 201–210.

Common mistake

Reading the definition before attempting to generate anything, which provides the answer in advance and prevents the generative processing that produces the memory benefit.